Two Days At A Time, Sweet Jesus

As I had mentioned previously, a rest day was in order. Even though we had some activities planned for Monday, we ended up enjoying a well-deserved day of rest. That included a break from daily blogging. So, I am here to catch you all up on our travels.

Monday

We slept in a bit, since we had decided not to go to Pikes Peak. After getting ready, we went to the lobby to enjoy breakfast. My best review of breakfast is “Sufficient”. I will leave it at that, as otherwise, this Home2Suites was very nice and accommodating. After breakfast, we packed up and loaded out. Our first stop was a Michaels to get a few different colors of watercolor paint. As we were leaving, I put in an order at a nearby Panera Bread for a latte to improve my morning attitude. After I picked it up, we started on to our first activity for the day. On the way, I realized that there had been a mixup at Panera, and instead of a nice caramel latte, I had a chai tea latte. Not that there’s anything wrong with chai, but it was not coffee - not even close.

We drove to our planned activity, the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwelling. This was to be an example of Native American cliff structures, similar to ones we have seen in Arizona previously. As we looked closer, we realized that it was a reconstruction and relocation of ruins elsewhere to this location. There’s nothing inherently wrong with reconstructions, but we like seeing historic places that are treated with respect. This one was only missing a ball-pit. There were unmonitored children running amok everywhere. This was closer to a Putt-Putt than a historic site, and we decided we’d had enough.

Next stop was Garden of the Gods. This is a nice place with beautiful formations. We just drove around the loop and took pictures. I think we are all ready to relax up at Jim and Karen McMullen’s home. Jim is Les’ brother, and they had graciously offered to host us for a few days on our trip. They are so much fun to be around, and are amazing hosts.

They told us that there was really cheap gas at the gas station at their exit. It happened to be a Buc-ees(if you know, you know). The buc-ees phenomenon happened after I left Texas, so I was aware, but uninitiated. We pulled in to the gargantuan gas station, and Carrie and Pat hopped out to explore inside while I filled the tank. Even though there were more pumps than Taylor Swift fans, I had trouble finding an open one. Once I parked, I realized that everyone was inside the store, instead of at their pump. I filled the tank and went inside(after moving to a parking place). I have NEVER had to call someone to find out where they were in a regular convenience store. I had to do that here.

We did pick up a few snacks and drinks, and went outside to finish our drive. It was a short drive to Jim and Karen’s home. We arrived and unloaded. They live north of Denver, close to Loveland, where I first joined Jeremiah People nearly 30 years ago. It was great to be back in the area, though my recollections of that time are sparse at best. It is to be expected in this part of the world, that the garbage cans decked out in Denver Broncos colors. I could make some cheap shot comparing the Broncos to garbage, but frankly, that is beneath me, and I refuse to do it.

After getting settled in, we gathered in the living room to hang out. It is very obvious that Jim and Les are brothers, and it was really great to see him and Karen again. We had such fun reminiscing, and they made us feel right at home. When it got closer to dinner time, the beautiful day turned dark and windy. The winds came up so strong that Jim had trouble getting all the burners on his grill to light. Hamburgers ain’t gonna grill themselves! So, we waited a bit, and watched the weather unfold to the west. It was amazing looking at the clouds on the mountains.

Eventually, he got the burgers cooked, and we loaded up our plates and sat down to eat. I was at the table with Pat and Carrie, waiting for Jim and Karen to sit down. Carrie asked me if I was waiting for Jim and Karen before I started eating. I nodded. She looked at Pat - both of their mouths full - and started laughing. Jim then came in and sat down, with a half-eaten burger on his plate. Carrie totally lost it laughing.

After a great meal, we continued chatting, and read through some of my blog together. Jim wisely found an autocorrect fail in my “Dear Gentle Reader” opening. He asked if I didnt have any Jewish readers of my blog, as I addressed it to “Dear Gentile Readers”instead. I did search for a wittier way to describe the typo, but failed to come up with an inoffensive method.

Carrie inquired if they played games. She went into the games closet, and came back with “Loaded Questions”. She instructed me to figure out the rules and tell everyone. It is a really fun game where you have to guess which answers to common questions everyone else gave. We had a lot of fun, and I ended up winning.

It was late, so we all went to bed, hence no entry.

Tuesday

Today we started with a quick breakfast, and loading up the car to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. We were going to be joined by Matt, Jim and Karen’s son, and his girlfriend, Kinsey. We shuffled things around so that we could all go in the same car, even though that meant we were reallly stuffed to the brim. Matt and Kinsey were great sports about being all the way in the back, and it was great to all be in the same car.

We drove up to Estes Park to go to the entrance of Rocky Mountain. We had a Shaka tour, though it really wanted us to go through the Estes Park entrance. There was a lot of construction, so we ended up going through another entrance, not close to the tour stops. Our first stop was Sheep Lake, which apparently often has bighorn sheep. The only animal we saw was a prairie dog. He was cute, though.

The next stop was a short hike to an alluvial fan and waterfall. The weather was great, and it was nice to take a walk. We got to take some great pictures together, and then returned to the car. Next stop was Hidden Valley (no ranch), and we were surprised by a large moose, dining away on some willows. After we took a lot of pictures, a ranger told Karen and Carrie that they had just had a report of bighorn sheep at Sheep Lake. They convinced the car to backtrack a bit.

Pulling into the parking lot, we could see some sheep starting to walk back towards the road. Carrie was insistent about my driving around a particularly slow moving car, so she could see the sheep. She ended up practically jumping out of the car before I even really came to a stop, and ran towards the field. she did get some great pictures of the sheep before they retreated across the road and back up the hillside.

We continued through the park, and saw some beautiful scenery, On one stop, I got a quick picture of a marmot before it scampered away behind some rocks. On our way back to the car, there was another, just hanging out on some rocks. I got some great pictures with our long lens. We then saw some elk lazing around on the mountainside. We kept driving up in elevation, and at our endpoint of this drive, as we got out to visit the center, Carrie really started feeling the elevation. 12 thousand feet is pretty high for us low-landers.

We headed back down to normal elevations, and decided to head over to Bear Lake. Unfortunately, our reservation for the park did not include this area, so we were turned away. We headed to a picnic area to have some lunch, and just then, the winds and lightning came up suddenly, and forced us back into the car.

We drove to the other visitors center, and the rains came. So, we wanted to go see the Stanley Hotel (the Overlook from The Shining), and the guard shack and barricades prevented entry. We did get some spooky pictures, though. We ended up at the Estes Park Visitors Center parking garage. There we could have a sheltered picnic.

After eating, we stopped at the Cherry Tree, and picked up a cherry pie, and some treats. Then, we stopped at The Dam Store, whose tag line is “helping kids cuss since 1910”. We took some fun pictures, and continued back home. After we dropped off Matt and Kinsey, we headed back to Jim and Karen’s. Matt and Kinsey brought Freddie, their dog, over to hang out, and we shared the blog and pictures with them as well.

We headed to On the Border for Taco Tuesday, and had a great meal together.. We came back home for cherry pie and more hangout time. Eventually, we said our good nights, and headed upstairs to bed. I am pretty bleary-eyed, finishing this blog at post-midnight hours. Unfortunately, we have to head on tomorrow. We have had such a great time with family. They are all so amazing and we can’t wait to see them again. Tomorrow, we leave Colorado, and continue our journey. Now, it is time to sleep.